Cost of college attendance crossed over average income around the millennium. As the gap between these two widen, colleges feel the need to offer scholarships to those who can’t afford full pay.
Schools need to make up the “short fall” of scholarships. Some schools have enormous endowments and can use investment income. Other schools don’t have this luxury and need to focus on full pay students.
It’s not surprising that schools are courting these students. In fact, I’d argue that schools have on principle avoided doing this in the past to avoid the appearance of any impropriety. As the need for money gets great, I expect this reluctance will melt away and that full pay students will be given an increasing amount of “extras”.